Hugh Roberton

Who was Hugh Roberton?

Hugh Stevenson Roberton was an Australian politician.

Roberton was born in Glasgow, Scotland, son of Sir Hugh Roberton, a Scottish composer and founder of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. He was educated at the West of Scotland Agricultural College and Glasgow University and emigrated to Australia in the 1920s. He became a farmer and grazier at Old Junee and a writer on political and economic subjects, particularly in the rural newspaper the Land under the name, "Peter Snodgrass". During World War II he served as a gunner in the Middle East.

Roberton stood for the Country Party at the 1949 election for the House of Representatives seat of Riverina and defeated the Labor member, Joe Langtry. He was a proponent of government intervention to stabilise the price paid to wheat-growers. In February 1956, he was appointed Minister for Social Services in the seventh Menzies Ministry, a position he held until his resignation from parliament in 1965. He was then appointed Australia's first ambassador to Ireland until 1968.

Roberton was survived by his wife, Eileen, and a daughter.